Gone Away ~ The journal of Clive Allen in America

Contents and Clarification
14/01/2005
This blog began as an attempt to put down my thoughts on coming to America for my kids back in England. It became known as "The Journal", for want of any better title. As time went on, I found that there were days when I had little to say and, to fill the empty spaces, I began to intersperse more general thoughts and memories. These we could refer to as "The Blog", since they are more like the usual blog one finds on the net. Finally, in an unexpected aberration, I began to add pieces on a dog called Rufus, partly at the instigation of my son, Mad, and also because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The result of this evolution has been that the blog as a whole has become somewhat of a confusing mixture. I keep track of what is going on, however, and I list below a Contents that might aid anyone who wonders at the structure of it all. Ultimately, I hope to be able to persuade Mad to build this structure into the blog so that no further explanation is necessary.

THE JOURNAL

CHAPTERS

1 Going Away (Originally an email to my kids)2 Lawton (A description of the town I live in now)3 Food (An appreciation of eating out in America)4 Futureshock and the Wild West (A thought on technology and the future)5 Oklahoma Nights (Thoughts on Halloween)6 24 Hours from Tulsa (A trip to Tulsa)7 Election Reflection (Political ponderings)8 The Black Hole Theory (A guess at the solution to a mystery)9 A Little White House (Description of our present abode)10 Tumbleweeds and Turkeys (Amarillo and Thanksgiving)11 A Question of Sport (A search for understanding)12 Pontification and a Vineyard (The Church in America)13 A Musical Sandwich (Bread and country music)14 The Sea And Me (First of my Galveston thoughts)15 Spiders, Man! (Arachnids in Africa, Britain and America)16 Pine Forests and Bayous (Second of the Galveston pieces)

RUFUS

1 Rufus cap 1, part 12 Rufus cap 1, part 2

THE BLOG

1 A Real Blog (First departure from the Journal)2 Fool That I Am (Personal ponderings)3 Landscapes (Personal ponderings)4 Just Renewed My Artistic Licence... (An excuse to "borrow")5 Procrastination (Personal ponderings)6 An Invitation (An appeal for comments)7 Failing to Win (Personal ponderings)8 Breather (American Idols 1)9 American Idols 210 A Lazy Day (Personal ponderings)11 Sometimes It Gets Like This (Personal ponderings)12 Did I hear You Say? (A poem of sorts)13 Retraction (Related to the Journal)14 Is Blogging a Disease? (Personal ponderings)15 Okay, I Admit I Had a Childhood (First of the African memories)16 Chimanimani (African memories)17 American Idols 318 Galveston, oh Galveston (An apology for absence)19 Local Color (North Texas story - might be included in the Journal at some time)20 Rhyme Time (Doggerel)21 Sharp Readers and Firey Foxes (Software for the blog addict)22 Hymn to Hendrina (African memories)

The African memories might evolve into a genre of their own or, possibly, join with the Rufus thing. Quite frankly, they are very easy to write and so tend to be produced as an escape from real work. Strangely, the Rufus pieces are hardest of all to write (very difficult to avoid huge info dumps) but they will continue sooner or later. The Journal varies tremendously in difficulty - sometimes I have lots to say and it flows, at other times it's like getting blood out of a stone. Today I am avoiding having to attempt a description of Galveston, so I feel an African memory coming on...

Clive

Gone Away
Ummm, Mad, somehow Rufus part 2 has got lost. I don't know how that happened (it was definitely in the whole thing I copied and pasted into the admin page) but would be grateful if you could check to see if I managed to make a mess of the tags at that point. If not, please add it in. :)

Also, the list of Blog contents has managed to move to the left and become darker. Explain that if you can... Date Added: 14/01/2005

Mad
It all seems fine to me Dad, I can see Rufus one and two? Date Added: 14/01/2005

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